I'm taking search offline sometime today to upgrade the server to a new instance type. It should be down for a day or so -- sorry for the inconvenience. If you're curious, the existing search machine is over 10 years old and was starting to accumulate a decade of cruft...!
Also, apparently these older machines cost more than twice what the newer ones cost, on top of being slower. Trying to save a bit of maintenance and cost, and hopefully a Wednesday is okay!
Edited: The other cool thing is that this also means that the search index will be effectively realtime afterwards... no more waiting a few minutes for the indexer to catch new content.
one may think “language” is french or spinach for “the nguage”. this is a folk etymology myth, it is actually more like mile -> mileage. “How much language are you getting out ofthose words”
I regret to inform everyone that this is actually not that far off the real etymology. The ‘langue’ part of language comes from the latin 'lingua’, meaning 'tongue’, and the ’-age’ suffix is something the word picked up in old french as a suffix of action (like how a 'pilgrimage’ is 'that thing pilgrims do’). So really it’s more like 'what that tongue do’
Also the Proto Indo-European root for tongue is cursed and needs to be brought to your attention:
late 13c., langage "words, what is said, conversation, talk,“ from Old French langage "speech, words, oratory; a tribe, people, nation” (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *linguaticum, from Latin lingua "tongue,“ also "speech, language” (from PIE root *dnghu- "tongue"). The -u- is an Anglo-French insertion (see gu-); it was not originally pronounced.
I’m noticing some interesting choices with regards to pronouns in Laura Pohl’s translation of All Systems Red. See, in Portuguese we don’t have object pronouns like “it/its” and neutral neopronouns like “elu/delu” are considered more analogous to the English “they/them”, so gendering Murderbot the way that it is gendered in the original was always going to be tricky. There’s also the other difficulty that adjectives are gendered in Portuguese, so whenever Murderbot describes itself or it’s emotional state or anything, necessarily it was going to gender itself grammatically in some way. What this translation does at first is that the Murderbot’s internal dialogue it genders itself in the masculine which I assumed to be just sort of defaulting Murderbot to be a masculine character, but in reflection of a different detail, I think it’s just defaulting to this formal almost archaic notion of the masculine as neutral. Now, the detail that made me rethink this is this line that I just came upon of Dr Mensah’s:
“UniSeg, preciso que você fique parada aí até eu chegar.”
[SecUnit, I need you to stay still (female form) until I arrive]
The reason that Mensah is referring to Murderbot in the feminine in this case is that it’s referring to it as a security unit, right, and the word Unidade, Unit, in Portuguese, is a feminine word. So I just went back now and I found one other previous instance in which characters refer to Murderbot in the third person and, Ratthi, he calls Murderbot by masculine pronouns but that’s when it’s being referred to as a robô, robot, which in Portuguese is a masculine word. So I guess the way that Pohl found to express Murderbot’s object pronouns is by just using whatever pronouns are in agreement with the word being used to describe it. Which to be fair makes a lot of sense for treating objects in Portuguese. If you call something a cadeira, chair, you’re going to refer to it with feminine pronouns, but if you call the exact same object a sofá, sofa, you will be using the masculine pronouns.
okay I just realized the reason Murderbot refers to itself with masculine pronouns in its internal dialogue all the time is because it’s referring to itself as a robô assasino, murderer robot, which is masculine okay this is kind of genius actually
okay okay this is so cool actually literally the next page and Murderbot is talking about other SecUnits right and it says this
“Elas não eram os robôs-assassinos mais astutos, (…)”
[They (feminine plural) weren’t the (masculine plural) most astute murder robots, (…)]
…feminine pronouns for Unidades de Segurança, SecUnits, and masculine pronouns for robôs-assassinos, murder robots…
so yeah it’s it’s literally exactly as I understood it we are simply using our own grammatical gender rules for objects… it’s so cool
hey, translator here! (: this was absolutely done on purpose. gendering Murderbot would always be a problem, so I, the copyeditors and the brazilian editors worked together to make sure that bots/constructs could be referred with both masculine/feminine pronouns, sometimes even in the same paragraph. same goes for ART in the second novella, who’s also an It in english, but varies between nave (ship, femine) and transporte (transporte, masculine). it’s an important detail and i’m happy it was noticed!
I read this post first like a month or two ago and it absolutely rewired how I thought about gender pronouns in French so thank you for that brazilian translator/editors.
That’s not what the French translation of Murderbot does though, it uses “iel” which, while the most common gender-neutral neopronoun used by nonbinary French speakers I know, is also exclusively used by people. Like, a chair, table, etc can’t be “iel”, it has to be “il/elle”. So “iel” preserves the gender-neutrality, but it’s much less dehumanizing than “it” in English, something that I think the Portuguese solution does a particularly good job at.
The Japanese one is still really good and more people need to appreciate it:
In the Japanese translation of the books, Murderbot uses the genderless neopronoun 弊機 (heiki), which means through its characters "both “bad/evil robot” and “this second-rate, humble company machine".“ It’s also a homophone for 兵器 (heiki), meaning "weapon.” The Japanese translator is Naoya Nakahara, and her translation of the first four Murderbot novellas won a translation award in Japan in 2021.
I once chatted with a guy from Hawaii, we started talking about languages. I mentioned that while I’ve heard very little of it and hardly seen more of it written down, the Hawaiian language seems to have extremely similar balance of vocals and consonants as Finnish does, so it’s actually pretty likely that there are some words that exist in both languages, but mean one thing in Hawaiian and a completely differen thing in Finnish - much like in Japanese.
He didn’t find it plausible, so we agreed to disagree. Later on he mentioned that his name is [firstname] Kalani Kanaele, and when I told him what that translates to in Finnish, I had to spend like 20 more minutes trying to convince him that I’m actually not fucking with him.
Okay so in finnish, “kala” means “fish” - just any fish, fish in general, and “kana” means “chicken”. “Ele” is “gesture”, as in a physical movement that an animal or human does to nonverbally communicate something. The -ni suffix is a possessive referring to oneself, essentially “my”. In finnish, compound words are of the “if it doesn’t exist yet, I can make one up on the spot” variety, so almost all nouns can be slapped together to refer to something specific.
So, broken down like this and put back together, this dude’s name translates to “the chicken-like gesture that my fish makes.”
Honestly, as a German I can not quite understand the obsession of the English speaking world with the question whether a word exists or not. If you have to express something for which there is no word, you have to make a new one, preferably by combining well-known words, and in the very same moment it starts to exist. Agree?
Deutsche Freunde, could you please create for me a word for the extreme depression I feel when I bend down to pick up a piece of litter and discover two more pieces of litter?
um = around
die Welt = world
die Umwelt = environment
ver = prefix to indicate something difficult or negative, a change that leads to deterioration or even destruction that is difficult to reverse or to undo, or a strong negative change of the mental state of a person
der Müll = garbage, trash, rubbish, litter
-ung = -ing
die Vermüllung = littering
ver- = see before
zweifeln = to doubt
-ung = see before
die Verzweiflung = despair, exasperation, desperation
die Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung = …
This is a german compound on the spot master class and I am LIVING
=the corner in which you retreat when you´re desperate because of your fear when being unable to form monster words
*eye twitch*
But what I want to see now is two germans arguing over the construction of one of these monster words.
@shiplocks-of-love I don’t think that will happen. The words make perfect sense. I think if German is your mother tongue you get a feeling for combining words, like a
Monsterwortbildungsgespür
Monster = monster
Wort = word
Bildung(s) = formation
Gespür = intuition
;-)
🤡
Sprachirrgartenbelustigungsbeitrag
die Sprache = language
• irren = to become lost (also: to err, to be mistaken; to wander, to stray)
• der Garten = garden
der Irrgarten = maze, knot garden
• be- = prefix with a variety of functions: ¹as part of a compound word, it denotes a processing or change of state; ²as part of a compound word, it denotes a touch; ³as part of a compound word, it denotes a more intensive preoccupation with or thematization of something; ⁴it forms from a noun an adjective with a pseudo-participle form because the corresponding verb does not exist; ⁵as a prefix, it forms a transitive verb from a previously intransitive verb; ⁶as a prefix of a verb, it shifts the focus and thus changes the sentence structure
• lustig = funny
• -ung = suffix turning an adjective/adverb into a noun
die Belustigung = amusement, entertainment, merriment
der Beitrag = contribution, article in a newspaper or magazine, posting on social media, input to a discussion
Bloody love this language <3<3<3
The thing is, since in German you have to decline/conjugate many words in relation to the noun they are refering to those monster words actually serve a purpose of making the language simpler.
A common example is a (as in any) red wine (ein roter Wein) as compaired to the compound a red wine (ein Rotwein). If rot is an adjective it has to be conjugated: der rote Wein - des roten Weins - die roten Weine - and many more. But it if rot is part of the noun you only have to decline Wein: der Rotwein - des Rotweins - die Rotweine.
So, die Verzweiflung über die Vermüllung der Umwelt is way longer than Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung and you would have to know three grammatical genders and the words’ respective declinations. Whereas for Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung you only need to know that Verzweiflung is grammatically feminine (die) and its deklinations.
-s- // the glue that keeps german compound words together
repost // self explanatory
Doomscrollaufhellungsrepost // a repost to brighten up your doom scroll
You‘re Welcome!
The thing that I always want to point out to English speakers marvelling at German compounds is that we do this too! It’s a thing that Germanic languages are especially prone to!
It’s just conventional in English to keep writing spaces in between larger compounds, whereas in German it’s conventional to remove them. But they sound the same! Grammatically, they’re identical!
You could call it the…
English-German compound word space omission overadmiration fallacy
Apart from the health things, and the usual collection of computer games, Lego and painting/crocheting, here are some other things what have been happening:
Matthew had a birthday at the end of March:
There was easter, and we had chocolate eggs, and decorated boiled eggs for rolling down a hill
We went on a bike ride, 38 km from Audley End to home, via a nice pub
And we finished off the Easter hols with a bluebell walk from Elsenham to Newport
Frozen shoulder: After a three week wait I got a phone call from the GP, who agreed it was probably a frozen shoulder after all and a steroid injection would be appropriate but should be done as soon as possible. so I came in that afternoon. Injection duly done I noted that one of the listed possible side effects was "doesn't work" which was dryly amusing. I asked about the possibility of hydro-distension (injecting the joint with sterile water to manually free up the stuck bits) if that was the case, and was sent a URL where I could try self-referral for that (though warned of a long wait). Initial response to the injection was promising, very increased movement the next day, though without much decrease in pain. It's now been a couple of weeks, and the range of movement is still quite limited, but I think overall I'm able to do things for longer before being in pain. Still very achy yesterday after a day of walking (bluebells!) and computer gaming. I investigated the self-referral webpage today, and it seems to be *physio* referral, but I filled in the form anyway. Depending on how long the wait for that is it's probably worth it compared to paying £60 for 40 minutes with the private physio, and perhaps they'll be able to arrange the hydro-distension too. Now we wait
HRT/coil: The first GP I "saw" about the shoulder also started me on combined oestrogen/progesterone patches for HRT, with a referral to get my Mirena coil changed early, so it would provide the progesterone component once changed. I got a text message a week or two later with a link to book a coil clinic place, but the first one was the following lunchtime (too short notice) and the next ones were while we're away in May. I checked back again today in case more dates had become available, and there's one slot in a clinic at their Linton practice on 16th May. Linton is too far away to practicably cycle home from after having a coil inserted, so I've contacted them via practice's admin webform to ask if there are likely to be any other dates available in the near future in Shelford or Sawston, or should I just book the Linton one and get a taxi. I fear by the time I hear back that won't be an option any more anyway at this rate! Now we wait :) Edit: SMS from GP receptionist "Please keep checking back for new appointments". I may try calling the local sexual health clinic - but I don't know if they do coils for over 50s!
Other: I was due to go give blood today (being long enough after the steroid injection and not currently awaiting any investigations) but I've got a bit of a cold, so I've postponed until next week. Always feel bad about cancelling on the day, but better than donating with germs! Once the blood donation is done I need to book in the second Shingles vaccine dose too. More things for awkward arms :) Matthew had his HPV vaccine recently though with no ill effects, and I'm so glad that's available now. That reminds me, I need to fill in the paperwork with his phone number - now he's 13 he's allowed to be responsible for his own healthcare decisions to some extent and they want to be able to contact him directly. Also looking at sorting out his email access now he's old enough to have his own account properly (rather than me running one for him). That's a bit off-topic though :)
Back in January I said I was going to make “comfort” my media theme for the first quarter of the year and then think about if I wanted to change. The first quarter of 2026 has been over for a bit. I’ve been having an amazing reading year so far! Other media not so much – I’ve been watching things only with other people, but that’s fine. Honestly I’ve not been thinking about my media theme much. So I guess it's going fine? I don’t see any need to change it anyways.
But now that I am thinking about my theme I kinda want to watch another crossdressing girl drama – those are so fun and comforting.
And now for some thoughts on recent media. It’s been a bit because I was busy and sick – but I’m doing better now.
NewsPrints by Ru Xu —Sometimes I read a thing that it seems like I should be really into and I'm just like "This is nice" That's how I feel about this book. It's got a crossdressing girl, cool diesel punk tech, found family! I'm not sure why I don't love it. (I started reading the squeal but it was somewhat darker and I didn’t really want to deal with that.)
Justice Society of America vol 1 and 2 by Geoff Johns, Mikel Janín et al. —I ended up reading this for convoluted reasons: I read Stargirl and the Lost Children because it had an appearance by a minor character that I was curious about, and then I wanted to know what happened next, which is told here. I would have liked even more lost children. But really the problem with this is that its too much story for the space, everything happens very fast and there is not enough time to get to know the characters. Probably I’m expected to come in already knowing and caring about some of them, but since I didn’t it really just felt like no one got much space to be interesting.
I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner—This queer regency romance is billed as “inspired by Jane Austen and queer history” but you could just as easily call it “a queer retelling of Emma”. I enjoyed it! I love how expressive the faces are. Also I really appreciated the facts and references in the back. And It’s super cool that all of the clothing is based on existing surviving garments or historical fashion plates!
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girlvol 1-2 by Ryan North, Erica Henderson, et al— this continues to be very fun! Featuring such delights as dinosaurs and a zine issues!
Nezha (2019)— I watched this Chinese animated movie with my group watch discord. So I generally I write up notes on each item for these posts a day or two after finishing it so it will be fresh in my mind (Then I wait until I have several things so I can post them all together) But this time I had to run off after watching Nezha and now its been a week so I don’t remember this as well as I’d like. It was fun though. Content Note traumatic childbirth, gross bodily fluids
I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.
Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)
We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.
I've been meaning to write a rec list inspired by all the graphic novels and comics I've been reading recently for a while, but I kept getting sick or distracted. But I've finally finished it so you can go check it out here!
I think I've talked about most of these in my Media Roundup posts but you can think of this as the highlights version.
Bonus 110: The pink-collar labour of colour words - Part II with Kory Stamper
The dedication at the beginning of TRUE COLOR by Kory Stamper is “For Margaret”. When we started reading it, we assumed that Margaret was someone important to Kory herself. But midway through, we got hit with a paintbombshell: Margaret Godlove was also the key to the strangely evocative colour definitions in Webster’s Third International Dictionary. Like this one:
coral: a strong pink that is yellower and stronger than carnation rose; bluer, stronger, and slightly lighter than rose Delphia; and lighter, stronger, and slighter yellower than sea pink.
This bonus episode is the second half of our interview with Kory Stamper about her book on defining colour words, and this half contains spoilers! If you missed the first half, it’s available for free on our main podcast feed, and if you like to experience history spoiler-free in book form, you can pick up True Color first. But then come back here for our discussion with Kory about how she learned about Margaret Godlove and many other women whose labour has been forgotten in early colour science and dictionary making.
I had to ask Kory Stamper about how she found out about this plot twist that she put in True Color, but I also didn’t want to spoil it for people reading the book for the first time, so here it is as a bonus episode to split the difference.
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